News Roundup - July 25, 2007

The Washington Post: Local Property Dispute Grows Into International Issue for Kazakhstan
The house where Maya Salakhutdinova lived is now a shell of ruined walls with broken cinder blocks and splintered wood spilling in a heap onto a narrow lane. Last month, her house and 11 others in this village, a secluded enclave about an hour from Almaty, Kazakhstan's commercial capital, were bulldozed by court order...
Eurasia Insight: Officials Adopt Low-Key Approach On Language Policy
It has been 10 years since Kazakhstan adopted a law that enshrined Kazakh as the state language, and required all citizens to learn it. A decade later, major challenges continue to hamper efforts to encourage non-Kazakh speakers to learn the language...
Guardian Unlimited: Kazakhstan Open to make European Tour debut in 2008
The Kazakhstan Open will debut on the European Tour next year, elevating the first professional golf tournament in the oil-rich Central Asian country to main-tour status after three seasons on the junior circuit...
neweurasia: Kazakhstan Recruits "Proper" Monitors
As the parliamentary elections are approaching, the authorities are becoming more and more active in international lobbying and positive image-making. Last week I wrote about Paris-based PR firm, which gently prepares international public for inevitable landslide victory of the ruling party “Nur Otan”...
Reuters: Environmentalists Call for Caution in Mercury Cleanup in North
As a long-planned operation to clean up a major source of mercury pollution in northern Kazakhstan gets under way, environmentalists and academics are calling for caution in dealing with the highly toxic substance...
Religious Intelligence: Persecution on the Rise in Kazakhstan
In Shymkent a mother and her young child were barred from their home on the premises of the Baptist Church after the Church refused to undergo state registration…
Reuters: RLPC-Kazkommertsbank launches $400 mln loan
Kazakhstan's largest bank, JSC Kazkommertsbank, said on Wednesday it has mandated the initial lead arrangers and bookrunners for a $400 million, 370-day syndicated trade related loan…